Mass Effect Griffin
by BLOCblaster
Summary: A former Alliance soldier turned mercenary assigned to a seemingly simple mission is shocked, when he runs into Commander Shepard and her squad. A fight ensues as he is forced to fight the woman he once considered a fellow soldier and friend.
1. Chapter 1

The shuttle shook slightly as it broke through the atmosphere. Felix Griffin checked his M-15 Vindicator for the third time since the shuttle had departed for the surface. A habit he had picked up during his time with the Alliance.

"2 minutes to touchdown!" Came to monotone voice of the pilot from the speakers.

Standing, he placed the rifle onto the magnetic holster on his back, with a distinctive clicking sound. "Okay people, listen up!" he called out, catching the attention of his squad. "This is a standard smash and grab, we're dropping into a hot zone, with 2 dozen plus hostiles." He began. He didn't really need to go over this again, they had all been briefed before leaving, but he had learnt from experience to always make sure everyone understood their role. "Jade you're pulling overwatch, keep them off our backs while we move in and hold down the extract point."

The sniper nodded her head in response, "Sure thing Boss."

He then turned his attention to the large man, "Walker, you and I will punch through them and secure the asset."

The heavily armoured man grunted in confirmation.

"After the asset has been secured we'll extract from the AO." he concluded as he grabbed his helmet placing it over his head, "Let's show these fuckers exactly what it means to be part of CAT6!" he exclaimed, his voice deeper and distorted, the voice modulator built into his helmet taking full effect.

"30 seconds to touchdown." the pilot's voices came through the speakers once again.

Griffin moved to the shuttle door, readying his rifle, putting his weight onto his back foot. The door slid open and in a single fluid move, he jumped forward, landing on the platform. He immediately rose his rifle, shooting one of the surprised pirates in the face. As the pirates' body fell to the ground, he dove behind cover as Walker began to fire at them, covering Jade, who moved to an overlooking position.

As she moved into position, she began to line up shots on the cowering pirates, each one soon falling to the ground, as a coloured mist surrounded the space their head used to be.

Meanwhile Walker generated his ballistic shield, drawing most of the pirates' attention, whilst Griffin periodically rose from cover to fire at the pirates, often hitting one in the torso or head, before ducking back down.

Looking over the docks, Griffin felt confident they had killed the last of the pirates.

He brought his hand up to the side of his head, activating his Comms. "Jade keep an eye out for movement, we're moving into the warehouse." He ordered, as he and Walker moved towards the large open door.

The two moved through the tall stacks of, what was most likely stolen, supplies. This would be a good place to gather equipment from, Griffin noted to himself as they neared the small room built into the wall, probably a foreman's office.

Griffin took position next to the open door, Walker just behind him, and peeked in. There were two pirates stood talking with a third sat at the terminal, a small smirk formed under Griffin's helmet as he reached to his belt and unclipped a flashbang, and tossed it through the door, there was a loud bang and a bright flash, before he heard distressed and disorientated noises from the pirates inside. Quickly rounding through the door, he fired three bursts into each of the pirates, their bodies falling limply to the floor.

Clipping his rifle onto his back again he set about searching the room, while Walker remained outside, just in case there were any more pirates.

As Griffin searched, most of the room was annoyingly empty, though he did transfer a few hundred credits from the terminal.

Finally he found what he was looking for, tucked in the back of one of the lockers, a small black box, he didn't know what was in it, nor did he care, he was getting paid to bring back the box to their client, not ask questions.

With the asset secured the two quickly made their way back to the landing pad, though they paused when jade's Comm. pinged Griffin's. "Boss we've got a problem, there's another shuttle coming in. I don't recognise the marking, we might be in for a fight."

This was strange, no one else should have any reason to come here. The Alliance and Council never ventured into the Terminus systems if they could help it. It must be more pirates, coming back from a raid, Griffin concluded.

"Right Jade move into a better position. Walker, you and I will use the entrance as cover to set up an ambush." He ordered as he set out preparing for another firefight.

From his position to the side of the large warehouse door, Griffin watched the shuttle move towards the platform. Just like Jade, he didn't recognise the white shuttle with black and yellow markings, what he did recognise however, was the tell-tale black and red striped armour of an N7, though from this far he couldn't make out who was wearing it. Seeing the armour brought back memories of when he wore it, a simpler time where he had been so eager to serve the Alliance.

But that was a long time ago, he needed to focuses on now, and getting him and his team out of here alive.

Jade lined up her sights on the red haired woman in the N7 armour, ready to blow her head off at Griffin's word. Before she had the chance to pull the trigger a loud shot echoed around the platform, as she was hit in the gut.

Griffin watched in a mix of surprise, shock and horror. None of them had seen the Turian line up and take the shot, but Jade had been hit. "Shit! Walker grab Jade and get to the second pad! " He ordered as he rose his hand to his helmet raising his Comm. "Shuttle Sigma 5, this is Sabre Squad, we need immediate Evac, moving extract point to the west landing pad!"

After radioing the shuttle Griffin charged forward firing quick bursts as he moved, covering Walker who once grabbing Jade over his shoulders, rushed through the warehouse to the extraction zone.

Arriving at cover, Griffin ducked down and watched Walker and Jade, disappear through the warehouse door. Good, now all he had to do was hold off these attackers, at least that's what he thought until a singularity flew just past him.

"Fuck! They've got a biotic." Griffin cursed to himself.

Acting quickly, before the singularity could take effect, he dived over the wall he'd been using for cover, and was met by a volley of gunfire.

It was a bloody miracle he wasn't shot then and there, but it seemed he was having abnormally good luck today as his shields held out long enough for him to move to a large crate the pirates had obviously been too lazy to move. Something he was extremely grateful for right now.

From behind the crate he brought up his Omni-tool, sending an overload at whoever the hell these people were, seeing this as his best opportunity, he switched to his M-11 Suppressor and charged towards them while they were busy switching to their side arms. Which allowed him to volt over the cover the Turian was using, and swiftly apply a kick into his face, cracking the visor over his eye. That was for Jade.

Then he looked over to the Asari in the red, rather revealing jumpsuit, only the Asari would consider something like that battle appropriate.

Taking out a multi-frag grenade he threw it, which caused the Asari to move out into the open to avoid the explosions, allowed him to line up a shot and fire, hitting her shoulder, not even close to grazing her barrier, but it seemed enough to momentarily push her into cover.

Though he was then pulled to the ground by the Turian who punched him in the face, which he felt even through the helmet, though the Turian on top of him didn't stop his attacks. "Get off, you asshole!" he called out as he delivered a punch to the Turian's face which seemed to cause more pain than he'd intended.

That's when he noticed the scaring on the his opponents face, which gave him an idea, grabbing his pistol he slammed the butt of the handle in to the Turian's face which caused him to fall to the side on the floor, which Griffin used as a window to get to his feet.

"Garrus!" Griffin looked to where the call had come from, disregarding Garrus as an active threat. Though what he saw left him speechless, stood just a few feet away from him was Commander Shepard, very angry and very alive.

He was shocked. He'd heard, like most of the galaxy that Commander Jane Shepard had died when the Normandy was attacked. Though even before that he thought he'd never see her again, the two had worked together even trained together, he silently wondered if she'd remember him.

But he didn't have time to stroll down memory lane, he was in the middle of a fucking battle. So he rose his gun and began to fire as he moved closer, trying to force her into cover. Though surprisingly she began to rush towards him.

The two continued to close the distance between each other, neither willing to back down. Eventually the two were within arms-reach of each over, Shepard used the opportunity the smash the butt of her rifle into Griffin's arm, causing him to drop his pistol. Griffin quickly grabbed Shepard's rifle, twisting it in such a way that she was forced to let go, in order to not let him brake her wrists, and threw it to the side.

Now both unarmed, the two began trying to hit the other. Shepard's punches were powerful and full of strength, but Griffin was quicker, being able to doge her attacks and land his own quick punches to Shepard's lower torso, though she didn't falter, and they continued this little dance, Shepard would throw a punch, Griffin would dodge and strike her with his own, and repeat.

Eventually, after several successful dodges, Griffin miscalculated one of Shepard's swings. Moving his head straight into the path of her incoming fist. When the punch connected, Griffin felt the entire upper left section of his helmet shatter, twist and tare away, revealing his left eye up to his fringe, as well as that he was thrown to the side, spinning desperately trying to stop himself from falling.

He looked back at Shepard in shock at her strength, though his vision was slightly blurred and had a reddish tint to it as blood from one of the fresh cuts seeped down his brow. He realised then, there was no way he could beat her in a fist fight, so he decided to change tactics.

Taking his stun-baton from its sheathe on his thigh, he ran at Shepard once again, upon reaching her he jumped and kicked her in the chest, forcing her back a few steps. Landing, he quickly closed the distance and moved to strike her with the stun-baton. Missing only by a few inches.

Shepard went on defensive, blocking each swing of the stun-baton. At one point she noticed on opening in his attacks, and swiftly punched him in the gut, winding him and causing Griffin to stop his attempts at hitting the commander and keel over, holding his arm over his gut and trying to control his breathing.

Once he got his breathing under control Griffin readied himself to attempt another attack, when his attention was caught by a distorted thudding sound to his side, turning he saw that the Asari had thrown a shockwave his way. He didn't have time to move out of the way, all he could was brace himself and prepare to be hit by it.

A moment later he was thrown through the air, landing hard on the ground, the impact causing his damaged helmet to fly off his head, he slowly pulled himself up from the ground.

Shepard had used the opportunity to grab her pistol and aim it at the Merc, ready to shoot him.

When he rose his head and looked at her. Her eyes met his for a moment, and she recognised those mismatched eyes, the deep aqua green of the left and the vibrant golden brown of the right. She had seen those eyes years ago, back when she was an N1 recruit, they were the same eyes that belonged to her fellow recruit, her partner, her friend.

"Griffin?" She said his name, barely above a whisper, but he heard. He pulled himself to his feet, his eyes softening in silent surprise.

Before either of the two could speak further, a loud gunshot echoed between them and Griffin fell back as a shot priced his shields and tore through his shoulder. Shepard spun round and saw Garrus holding his sniper rifle, aiming it straight at Griffin.

When she turned back she saw a dark shuttle move close to the edge of the platform, the door slid open and Walked began firing at them, Shepard and her squad were forced to take cover, while Griffin got to his feet and ran to the shuttle, jumping in as the door closed and it began to ascend through the clouds, leaving Shepard staring at the sky as the shuttle slowly disappeared from view.


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter, Woo!

So I'm new to publishing fanfics, and in all honesty don't really know what I'm doing a lot in regards to that.

But blind optimism has always server well in the past! So what could go wrong?

Right now that fate has been temped, I hope you like this chapter, feel free to review and leave feedback, if that's a thing, if not, oh well. Enjoy.

Griffin was walking through the long metal halls of Armitage Station, and he was not happy.

He wasn't happy that he had been shot, or that he had lost his pistol, likewise, the quartermaster wasn't happy about that, because now he had to pay through the nose to get a new shipment in.

It seemed as if no one was happy right now, Jade wasn't happy about being shot, Walker wasn't happy about not killing the bastards who attacked them, and Griffin could imagine that Shepard was not happy about him getting away, that Garrus probably wasn't happy with getting kicked and punched in the face, and while he didn't know anything about the Asari, he imagined she wasn't happy about something too. So nobody was happy.

Except for the client, they were very happy. Though not enough to pay a bonus, cheap fucks.

Finally entering one of the bases many control stations, he began weaving through a large number of mercs present until he came to the office on the far side of the room. The door pinged and opened allowing him entrance, stepping through he took a seat at the desk looking expectantly at the Salarian stood in front of him.

Aliens were an uncommon sight on the former mining station since CAT6 was almost exclusively comprised of former Alliance members. Though occasionally a member of one of the other species would join their ranks, like Sopar here. He was a former STG commando, who'd joined up about 2 years ago after some mission he was assigned to went south.

"Ah Griffin, How's the arm?" Sopar asked, it was merely a formality, and Griffin knew it.

"Fine. Though I've used so much Medi-gel I can't feel anything below my elbow." He responded jokingly.

A small smile briefly showed on Sopar's face, but he didn't show any other outward indication, though it was clear to Griffin he had enjoyed to small joke. "Good to hear. We've been assigned a new contract, and I'm giving it to you."

Griffin shifted in his seat, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. "I'm listening."

Sopar sat and began typing into his terminal, bringing up an image of a Turian, one Griffin didn't recognise, though in his opinion most aliens sort of looked the same. "It's a solo op, the target is Joram Talid. He's running for office on the Citadel and has strong anti-human sentiments. We've been contracted to make sure that he doesn't make it into office." He explained

Griffin examined the image, "Is this a clean kill or are we sending a message?" he asked not taking his eyes off of the screen.

"Clean." Sopar replied, "I'll send you the relevant information, report to hanger 3D and board shuttle Gamma 8."

Griffin nodded rising to his feet and making his way to the exit and back down the long winding corridors again, at least now he had something to take his mind off the last mission.

Meanwhile on the Normandy. Commander Shepard sat in her cabin, specifically in front of her terminal, reading the Alliance personnel dossier it displayed, which she very much wanted to know how Cerberus had got their hands on.

She was still trying to get caught up on the events that transpired since her death. That thought alone caused a shiver to run down her spine, she still struggled with coming to terms that she had been resurrected from death after two years.

But she digressed and turned her attention back to the file she was reading. Lieutenant Felix Griffin. N7 status. Dishonorably discharged from active duty.

Well, that explained why he was running around as a mercenary. Shepard let out a deep sigh. What could he have possibly done to get kicked out of the Alliance? Not like she'd get her answers from here, whenever she tried to access the file any further it would shut down with Restricted Information popping up on her screen. It seemed there were some secrets even Cerberus couldn't get access to.

Fortunately, as a Spectre, she could get access, and all she needed to do was go to the Citadel. Which even more fortunately, she was on her way to right now. She did love it when coincidences made her life easier.

She decided that as soon as she was finished helping Thane with his son, she was marching straight to the Spectre offices and getting access to that file. And with that decision she deactivated her terminal and made her way down to the observation deck, she needed a drink.

Griffin waited in line at Citadel customs. He looked much more regular now, having removed his CAT-6 armour for more discreet attire, namely a brown bomber jacket over a simple black shirt with a pair of jeans, after all running around the Citadel in full armour with guns on show was just begging for attention.

Stepping forward to the customs officer, he placed the silver suitcase on the scanner, knowing full well that the led lined secret compartment in the lid of the case would keep his new Suppressor undetected, honestly, customs here were so laughably inept he bet you could just walk a Geth past them and they wouldn't even glance over twice. Through customs, he quickly set about making his way to the Zakera ward where his target was reported to be.

Stepping out of the sky-car, he made his way through the market, keeping his eyes open for any sign of his target. Which was difficult due to the crowds.

After several minutes, and no sight of his target, he decided he needed a new approach. Looking up he noticed several metal catwalks overlooking the marketplace. That might help.

Shepard entered the markets, flanked by Thane and Garrus. Quickly finding Joram Talid, she turned to Thane "There he is. How do you want to play this?"

"Follow Talid from the maintenance catwalks. Tell me what he's doing. The Krogan bodyguard will make him easy to follow."

"Where will you be?" she asked

"The darkest corner with the best view." He answered cryptically Shepard just shrugged.

Moving away from Thane she turned to Garrus. "Come on Garrus. We should split up, up there, make sure we have him in sight at all times."

Griffin entered through the door that led to the catwalks, moving over to the edge he looked at the crowds below, bringing up his Omni-tool he set about scanning for his target. It only took a few moments before his Omni-tool found a match. Right next to a fully armoured Krogan, how the hell had he missed that.

Following at a safe distance, Griffin moved from section to section, until he passed through a door and saw a very familiar Turian looking over the edge. His shoulder flared up with pain just looking at him again, though if he was here then in all likelihood so was Shepard. Damn.

The Turian, Garrus, if he remembered right, looked over when he heard the door close. He'd gotten a new visor it seemed, at least that allowed him to score some more payback for Jade. And now his shoulder.

Garrus took a moment, trying to place his face, when he did his eyes narrowed and he reached for his rifle, acting quickly Griffin rushed forwards, shoulder barging Garrus forcing him back a few steps.

Quickly closing the gap he grabbed the rifle, moving the barrel away from pointing at his face, before pulling the gun closer to him and forcing it towards Garrus, smashing the butt into his chest, Garrus retaliated by hitting the rifle out of Griffins hands and then trying to punch him, Griffin lent back and knocked Garrus' punch away with his elbow, then he grabbed the rifle again, and hit the side of the rifle in just the right spot that it caused the thermal clip to eject.

Throwing the gun to the ground Garrus began trying to hit Griffin, though he quickly began dogging each of the Turians blows. Fighting Garrus was defiantly different than fighting Shepard, she had greater flexibility, but he had reach, which made dogging his punches slightly harder.

Shepard entered through the door, after scaring a poor maintenance worker half to death by yelling about a bomb. Which she couldn't believe worked.

She glanced over the gap to the other catwalk, expecting to see Garrus stood there. Though what she didn't expect to see was Garrus fighting with a human.

The two were both unarmed and exchanging blows, very aggressively. Clearly trying to do some damage. She moved to the edge and leaned closer to get a better look. It took her a few moments before she recognised the human. Griffin.

Wasting no time she backed away from the edge, before taking a running start and jumping the gap, landing just to the side of the two. Though neither seemed to notice.

She looked up to see them both go for the pistols they had clipped on their hips, rushing in quickly she pushed herself in between to them, grabbing griffins hand and forcing him to aim the pistol to the ceiling, while pressing her other hand onto Garrus' chest. "Shepard?!" Garrus' surprise was evident in his tone, but she kept her focus on Griffin, who met her stare, his eye widened for the briefest of moments before the narrowed at her.

"Griffin?" Shepard asked, her grip on his hand becoming looser, he could have easily escaped her grip but decided against it.

"Shepard." He responded, his voice was smooth and playful as if he hadn't just tried to kill her squadmate. "Long time no see, huh."

She seemed surprised by his tone if the way her hand let go of his wrist and fell to her side was any indication.

Lowering his arm to the side, he glanced from her to Garrus as a sly smirk came across his face, "Thanks for calling off your attack dog."

That earned a growl from him, as he made a move to charge at him, which Shepard stopped by pressing her hand harder against his chest.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, using her Commander voice, so it was more of a demand.

After taking a moment to clip his pistol to his side, he lent back on one leg and crossed his arms. "Just a job." He answered simply. Though seeing her gaze harden, he elaborated. "Tracking a racist Turian running for office here. You?"

She seemed surprised by that, although she was almost good at hiding it before she answered. "Same."

"You're here for Talid too?" he asked uncrossing his arms and standing straight, slightly taken aback.

"Well, we're here to stop our friends' son from killing him." She shrugged. It amazed him how she could get into these sorts of situations and make them seem casual. Though he was even more surprised by what she said next. "Maybe we can help each other."

"What?" both he and Garrus exclaimed in unison.

"Shepard! Do you really want this merc following us around? He tried to kill us just a few DAYS ago!" Garrus started ranting, which made Griffin roll his eyes.

Rising his hand he interrupted Garrus, "Ok listen, Scarface. If I'd wanted you dead, I would have blown your brains out while you lay on the floor after I kicked you in the face. Oh, and by the way, you attacked my teammates first. Fuck! Jade's still in the fucking med-bay thanks to you. So don't stand there and give me that shit!" He snapped.

That seemed to shut him up, as his mandibles splayed in a look of shock. And Shepard seemed to be just as surprised as her Turian friend, she was just quicker at suppressing it. "It's alright Garrus we can trust him." She said turning to face him.

"Trust him?" he repeated, "Shepard he's a merc, a gun for hire! All he cares about is money!" he argued pointing at Griffin as if to demonstrate his point.

"Garrus enough!" Shepard snapped, "Griffins not just some merc, he's an N7." She stated, tapping the N7 logo on her armours chest for emphasis, "And more importantly, he was my partner. We went through training together, so I know I can trust him."

Garrus was shocked by that, he looked at Shepard with wide eyes, glancing over at Griffin he saw him staring at Shepard as well with a small smile. Garrus made an annoyed sound with his subvocals while he muttered. "Fine!"

She turned back face Griffin, "What do you say?"

He took a moment to weigh his options, he could guess how she'd react to finding out he was here to kill Talid, and she wouldn't like it. On the other hand, it would be easier to get to him alongside her than having to go around her back.

"You and me working together again? Sounds like fun, let's do it." He answered flashing her a quick grin.

Shepard responded with a smile of her own as she started to lead the two through the rest of the catwalks. Griffin quickly falling into stride beside her, which irked Garrus with how close he was.

"So what'd you do to get kicked out of the Alliance?" Shepard asked as the entered through a door.

"Ask me over drinks sometime."

Before either could continue the conversation, she looked over the edge, and saw a Drell in blue pulling out a gun on Talid and called out to stop him. "Kolyat!"

Griffin looked over to where Shepard was and saw Talid run into an apartment block followed by a Drell, which must be Kolyat he assumed. He and Shepard quickly set off in persuit.

Arriving in the apartment Griffin found Talid on his knees with Kolyat holding a gun to his head. He quickly took out his own pistol aiming at the Drell.

He wasn't paying much attention to what else was happening in the room, he knew that Shepard was also aiming her gun at Kolyat and that another Drell and C-Sec had turned up, but he wasn't really listing to what they were saying. Likely just basic hostage situation stuff.

He did hear Kolyat say he's leaving with Talid, and he knew he needed to act now or he'd miss his target. "Y'know kid, hostages only really work when the person you negotiating with wants them alive." He started getting his attention, as he aimed at Talids' head and pulled the trigger, the Turians head shot back as blue blood splattered on to Kolyat. "I don't."

Shepard watched as Talids' body fell to the ground, and turned to glare at Griffin. He'd said he was tracking him not that he was going to kill him. She turned back to see Thane and Kolyat stood closely with their heads lowered, and heard Bailey say they should go back to the precinct, she thanked him and noticed one of the C-Sec officers escorting Griffin out.

Thane left the cell C-Sec had provided him and his son with. There was a lot for the two to say to one another, but this was at least a start. One he never thought he'd have.

Moving to Shepard he stopped next of her. "How'd it go?"

"Our problems… they aren't something that can be fixed with a few words. We'll keep talking see what happens." He explained.

"Your boy shot some people. Nobody I feel sympathy for, but there it is." Captain Bailey interrupted, sounding almost regretful.

"I watched those guys shaking down businesses and threatening humans." Shepard quickly intervened, leaning on the desk, making sure to use her Commander voice.

Bailey tried to argue back, but Shepard was quick to counter. Persuading his to drop the charges, in exchange for some community service, he did try to kill a guy after all.

Baily got up from his seat and moved over to the two. "Interesting, I'll think about it." He offered Thane a handshake.

"Thank you, Captain." Thane thanked him while shaking his hand.

Bailey nodded and moved over to Shepard. "Now we have to deal with your other friend." He stated looking over her shoulder. "Where is he?"

Shepard looked over to the corner where Griffin had been stood to find the spot vacant, moving towards the corner she saw a C-Sec officer slouched on the wall, unconscious. Her gaze fell to the datapad on the floor next to the officers' feet, she picked it up and read the only text available.

See you around Shepard ;)

Dropping the datapad she quickly ran towards the exit of the precinct. She caught a glimpse of a brown jacket moving in the direction of the rapid transit station. "Griffin!"

Griffin looked over his shoulder to see Shepard, Garrus, and Thane running after him.

Shit! He began running towards the edge of the platform. Bringing his hand up to the comm. in his ear. "Shuttle this is Griffin, I need immediate pickup on my position, now!"

"Copy, on route now." The pilot called through the comm.

He rounded a corner and continued running, hearing shouting from behind him. He pushed past a group of Asari, nocking one to the floor, as he neared the railing he saw the shuttle rising in front of him. He jumped onto the railing and then into the waiting shuttle.

As he landed he turned to look out the door at Shepard as she stopped at the railing, looking back at him. He brought his hand to his head giving her a salute as the door closed and the shuttle made its way through the traffic.


End file.
